The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copy machine, a printer, a facsimile, a multifunctional peripheral having functions of these apparatuses, or the like, and relates particularly to an image forming apparatus in which toner scattered at the time of toner supply to an image carrying member is collected.
In an image forming apparatus, an electrostatic latent image that is formed by irradiation of light related to image data onto a uniformly charged image carrying member is supplied with toner from a developing device so that a visible image is formed, and the visible image thus formed is transferred onto a recording medium and then is fixed, whereby image formation is performed. The developing device includes a developing roller that is disposed in a developing region opposed to the image carrying member and supplies toner carried on the developing roller onto the image carrying member. When toner is supplied from the developing device to the image carrying member, in some cases, part of the toner is scattered and leaks out from an opening portion of the developing device, which is opposed to the image carrying member, causing contamination inside the image forming apparatus.
In order to avoid this, in the image forming apparatus, at a position in the vicinity of the image carrying member and in contact with a lower side of the developing device, a suction port for sucking in scattered toner is provided, and a duct that communicates with the suction port further is provided. This duct communicates with a rear duct that is provided on a rear side in the image forming apparatus, and the rear duct is provided with a suction fan that sucks in air and toner at the suction port and a filter that captures the toner thus sucked in. Toner scattered in the vicinity of the developing region is sucked in together with air through the suction port and, after passing through the duct and through the rear duct, is captured on the filter, and thus contamination inside the image forming apparatus is prevented.
In the above-described image forming apparatus, however, as scattered toner is repeatedly sucked into the duct through the suction port, the toner is gradually deposited in the duct, so that the duct might be clogged with the deposited toner at some point along a flow path. This has led to a problem that the toner does not reach the side of a discharge port to which the filter is mounted. Particularly in a case where the flow path of the duct, which extends in an elongated manner, is bent at some point along its length, or at a narrowed portion of the flow path in the duct, clogging with the sucked toner is more likely to occur, leading to a problem that collection of scattered toner cannot be achieved.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide an image forming apparatus in which a duct extending from the vicinity of a developing container to a dust collection part is prevented from being clogged with toner, and thus scattered toner is collected in an excellent manner.